Typically, gas springs, accumulators, and pneumatic and hydraulic cylinders utilize a round spring steel wire retaining ring to retain a seal and bearing assembly which provides a seal and bearing surface adjacent the piston or piston rod and also retains the piston or piston rod within the cylinder. The retaining ring is usually received in a radius groove machined near the open end and in the interior surface of the cylinder. The retaining ring bears on a shoulder provided by the groove and the seal and bearing housing bears on the opposite face of the retaining ring to retain the seal and bearing assembly within the cylinder.
When it is required to repair the fluid cylinder such as to replace the seal or bearing, it is necessary to remove the retaining ring from the groove within the cylinder. Usually, the retaining ring is modified such as by drilling holes through the ring or by notching or flattening a portion of the ring to enable a tool to compress the ring and remove it from the cylinder. Sometimes special machining is required on the cylinder to allow access to the outside of the retaining ring whereby it may be pried free or popped out of the groove. Modifying the retaining ring involves costly manufacturing processes and requires a relatively high degree of skill for the operator to remove the ring and is thus labor intensive and costly.